The inquest on the remains of Mr. James Currie, killed
by the railway collision at Weedon, was finished yesterday. Mr. M'Connell, the locomotive superintendent of the line, Captain Laftlin, the Government Inspector of Railways, and many more witnesses, were examined. " The Jury are of opinion that the deceased, James Currie. met his death by a cattle-train running accidentally into a passenger-train at Weedon; but without blame to the driver, on account of the engine getting out of order and the rails being slippery. The July cannot let the opportunity pass without recommending, for the better safety of the public, an alteration and enlargement of the Weedon station forthwith; it being too small for the quantity of traffic, without a siding."
There was a serious accident on the South Coast Railway—from Brighton to Portsmouth—near Arundel, on Thursday evening. Over the ricer Arun the trains are carried by a moveable bridge, on which only a single line of rails is laid down. If trains approach simultaneously from opposite directions, the furthest off is signalled to stop till the nearest has passed over the bridge and reentered its own rails on the double line. The Portsmouth 7.30 goods- train arrived at the bridge just before the Brighten 9.50passenger-train ; the passenger-train was signalled to stop, but did not do so ; and, run- ning into the rear of the goods-train before it had quitted the single line, it was itself turned, engine and every carriage of it, topsyturvey over the embankment. There were only four passengers, and all escaped unhurt. The stoker, Martin, was crushed in the skull. The engine-driver, Pemberton, escaped unhurt; but on seeing what he bad done, he cut his throat and jumped into the river. The guard, Burgess, clambered out of the window of his overturned carriage, just as Pemberton was leaping into the river ; he leaped in after him and brought him to land. Pemberton takes all the blame, and says that the glare of his furnace had blinded him so that he did not see the signals. He is in Chichester hospital, recovering. Poor Martin, the stoker, cannot live.
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